We have a galvanized trash can full of dry Pedigree dog food. The food is fresh but we found a few meal (sp?) worms in it so we don't wish to feed it to the dog. Is it okay to feed it to our pigs?

We have 5 pigs almost 2 months old.
They are being pasture raised, but we're also feeding them oats and wheat that have been soaking in fermented goat milk. I'm thinking that the dog food might be okay after it soaks up milk and becomes mush. But I wanted to hear it from others. Thanks.

If You Can Crush The Dry Food I Would Do So. We Once Had A Pig And Two Puppies About The Same Size. They All Ran Free In The Yard. I Would Fix Puppy Food And Pig Food And Set Them Out At The Same Time. They Eat And Bite Of Their Own Food Then Proceed To Eat The Other's Food. Finally, I Decided Dog Food Was Cheaper Than Pig And Just Fed Them All Dog Food. We Sold That Pig At 40 # Was Eating Us Out Of House And Home And Running Away. It Lived To Be About 400# Befroe Butchered.

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Hi Charleen,
Given that next to pigs, dogs are the biggest scavangers unhung, I doubt very much that a few weavils in the dog biscuits are going to hurt your dog.

There is no reason why you can't feed them to your pigs either steeped in milk or as they are but make sure that either way, they have access to plenty of water - dry food of this type swells in the gut and absorbs fluid even after it has been steeped.

I don't think I would simply because of the wormy things. If it were goats etc...I would say no no no because of bloodmeal and ruminants. But I know we feed the show hogs blood meal with some other stuff in it for burning fat off unwanted places like the jowls.

I had a friend who feed her pigs soley dog food (trying to save money) and the meat tasted like crap! But if it is just to use up the dog food and then they go back to regular feed, it may be okay. Don't know about the worms in it though...I'd keep in mind that you'll be eating them and would watch what they eat. Got any chickens that can eat it? Mine will eat anything Idrop or they knock out of my hands :haha: they're bad...

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The Last Straw (aka Helinbak Farm)
Once a Marine; always a Marine

Its not a problem, pigs naturally eat worms and caterpillars and anything else they can chase down. What a pig eats will not taint the meat unless it is poisonous, and then you'd have a sick or dead pig. Bad tasting meat is also not the result of castrating or not castrating a pig, it is the result of improper handling of the meat during any of the butchering, storing or cooking phase. It the caterpillars bother you sprinkle a little diatomaceous earth in the feed and give it a god stir

Its not a problem, pigs naturally eat worms and caterpillars and anything else they can chase down. What a pig eats will not taint the meat unless it is poisonous, and then you'd have a sick or dead pig. Bad tasting meat is also not the result of castrating or not castrating a pig, it is the result of improper handling of the meat during any of the butchering, storing or cooking phase. It the caterpillars bother you sprinkle a little diatomaceous earth in the feed and give it a god stir

I disagree with the tasting of the meat part. I know of people who like to feed their goats peanuts at the end to add a nutty taste to the meat. There are wild turkeys in Mexico who eat these tiny little peppers the size of peas and their meat is HOT HOT! I prefer over corn fed beef over grass..I taste a difference....JMHO....

several years ago we raise Pig on dog that the owner of the pig got from a dog kennel THAT was the worst tasting meat ALL IT SMELT LIKE WAS DOG FOOD EVEN WHILE IT WAS BEING COOKED thermis a lot of junk they put in the feed that is NOTeven good for the dog we feed all animals only natural feed a friend drop a road kill yesterday year old deer

I have tried the "stories" about meat and found them ALL to be myths. The only thing I have found that taints the pork is if the pig is butchered without having been bled. Toughness is a matter of not properly aging the meat. Think about it, do you know anything about the biology of digestion? anything you, or a pig or an earthworm or sardine or whatever eats either passes through the gut and never becomes part of the organism, or is broken down at the molecular level and recycled into the new organism's proteins. You are propagating myths.

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Originally Posted by buckshotboers

I disagree with the tasting of the meat part. I know of people who like to feed their goats peanuts at the end to add a nutty taste to the meat. There are wild turkeys in Mexico who eat these tiny little peppers the size of peas and their meat is HOT HOT! I prefer over corn fed beef over grass..I taste a difference....JMHO....

Sorry George......you will NEVER convince me that certain things do not make a difference in meat taste. I have had grass fed beef, no thanks. I have had beef fed just silage, protien cake/some corn...pretty good. And I have meat from steers fed good show feed....wayyyy good!! Pork, same thing. I had people buy hogs for butcher from a friend who fed only groceries, i.e...milk, bread etc......they came to us becaust that meat was terrible. They like our hogs and the meat. I grew up "eating our own" and had only a short time in my adult life where I didn't have home grown meat. I stopped eating meat really.

Tango, pigs seek out worms and grubs to eat. They love them, and it's great protein for them.

For whoever wouldn't feed their dog food with worms in it - dogs are scavengers . They eat dead things (their favorite food btw, the stinkier the better - I have a dog who is right now toting around a half-eaten groundhog he killed 2 days ago) dog food with a few worms in it won't hurt them. Probably be better for them. They are meant to have more protein than most commercial dog food provides.

Animals are not human children. Try to remember how they survived - and thrived - before we domesticated them. Think about what some of their natural foods would be if they had a choice.

Please don't anyone try to turn this into a debate about animal care. We take care of our animals. They get daily attention. They get vet care. They have no parasites, internal or external. They have shelter if they so desire. I am only commenting about the food thing.

George, I've eaten pork raised lots of different ways. I can tell you with certainty that there is at least one thing that leaves a taste in pig meat. GOAT MILK! Ugh. We bought pork for 2 years from a lady who raised her pigs on lots of goat milk. Won't do that again.

Tango, pigs seek out worms and grubs to eat. They love them, and it's great protein for them.

The man said "slop with maggots" Paula. This wasn't about what pigs would find and eat in the wild, which btw, has nothing to do with captive husbandry. Wild animals have unremarkably short lifespans, greatly due to their diets- even shorter when hunting is factored in.

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For whoever wouldn't feed their dog food with worms in it - dogs are scavengers . They eat dead things (their favorite food btw, the stinkier the better -

Yes, they might eat rotting things but dogs aren't scavengers; they're predators and opportunists. A vulture's digestive sytsem is better suited to do the job you're describing. For dogs, my vet calls it "dietary indiscretion." The cure is a round of antibiotics or meds for protozoal infection.

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Please don't anyone try to turn this into a debate about animal care. We take care of our animals. They get daily attention. They get vet care. They have no parasites, internal or external. They have shelter if they so desire. I am only commenting about the food thing.

The thread is about animal care; not necessarily yours however. I don't find anything wrong with feeding pigs worms, but rotten slop with maggots? It isn't an animal issue. Like so many other things it is a human issue. Why spend money on feed when one has access to free rotting garbage? Given no choice , a pig will eat it. Given no choice a pig will cool off in its urine. Given no choice a pig will eat its feces. Given no outlet, pigs will do a lot of things for which they've earned the distinctions their names recall. My pigs are incredibly cleaner than my goats have ever been. Pigs are clean, intelligent animals who will root for nourishment and diversion, not to find rotten garbage. I'm sure someone is going to jump in here and say something like "let's agree to disagree." I feel sorry for the pigs in the care of those who think feeding garbage is good for pigs and great for the homesteader's pocket.

Dogs and pigs are scavengers first, predators only if necessary. They do not normally get sick from eating dead things. If they do get sick, it's likely that from inexperience (dogs) they ate too much hair. Then once they throw it up they're fine. They don't need antibotics if they eat something dead. If they are healthy with good immune systems protozoa are not a problem. Protozoal infection comes more from surface water contamination anyway. BTW, most dogs today aren't necessarily healthy with good immune systems because we feed them a totally unnatural diet. Corn based, cooked to death with no enzymes.
I worked at a foxhunt years ago. I saw hounds thrive on animal carcasses. Dead cows and horses mostly. When an animal died in the area they were fed to the hounds. When the hounds were out hunting and came across a dead animal they ate and literally rolled in the carcass. They were the most fit, tough, healthy bunch of dogs I've ever seen.
Dietary indescretion or healthy food nature created them to eat? Depends on how citified your views of nature are.

Paula, I won't argue with your way of raising pigs. I don't even know you. Your comparison of eating grubs in the wild vs feeding rotten garbage teeming with maggots, and fresh carcass vs rotting flesh needs some additional thought on your end but if you think they are the same, fine with me. We're not in a classroom. But pigs are omnivores. Dogs are predators; they are both opportunists, not scavengers. I see wild pig sounders all the time where I live and they are rooting up fields (which some people on this forum will keep them from doing as well), not munching rotting flesh. As for the bucket of rotting slop with maggots vs, the bucket of corn, well my pigs would have passed on both. I guarantee it. They knew there was better. But they will not starve themselves to death. It is only with a limited selection that pigs make the choices you're giving them. Cows will eat chicken litter when given no choice. Just look at all the problems in our food chain because we look for -literally- ***** to feed to save money or make money. That is after all why I raise my own for the table- to avoid the health problems and to honor the animals my way. Perhaps that is citified to you and others. It doesn't matter to me in the least; its kind of funny that you say it at all. BTW, my Catahoula kills and eats opossums. She's gorgeous. And she stays out of garbage

We aren't arguing about my method of raising pigs. I haven't stated my method of raising pigs. I don't recall ever feeding them "garbage" though.
I know better than to get into these discussions, but the original post about not wanting to feed dog food with worms in it to dogs, then your comment to the person who fed their pigs maggots just amazed me.